SUPERGIRL 3.22 Review “Make it Reign”

This post contains spoilers for Supergirl. Check out our review for last week's episode here.

Those pesky Witches of Juru are up to some funny business! After stranding Kara and Mon-El on Argo in last week’s episode, the trio have made quick work of their world killing to-do list. All that’s left is to resurrect Reign. Shouldn’t be too big of a deal, Supergirl and team have beaten her before. Teeny tiny issue: as Reign gets stronger, Sam gets weaker. For the human to live, the Kryptonian must die and vice versa. How does that work? We don’t know!

The overall plot of “Make it Reign” focuses on getting Kara and Mon-El back to Earth while keeping Alex and Winn busy at the DEO, but the real emotional gut punch comes from J’onn and M’yrnn’s story. Carl Lumbly (M’yrnn) just waltzed onto Supergirl and stole everyone’s hearts. Hardly a scene of his passes that doesn’t leave you with one strong emotion or another. His goodbye to Alex takes a season’s worth of scenes establishing her as a granddaughter-like figure to him and uses them all to rip out your heart all at once.

Though he and J’onn remove themselves from the DEO early on to go through the ritual of transferring his memories to his son, they would return when things hit the fan at the end of the episode to steal the show all over again. The Witches of Juru need Purity and Pestilence’s blood to complete Reign’s transformation, which will then kick off the terraforming of Earth. All of this will result in a new Krypton, but everything on Earth must die first. Obviously, the Witches were successful, and that terraforming begins. While the DEO, the Kryptonians, and Mon-El scramble for a plan of action, M’yrnn offers to risk his life to save Earth, despite the protests from his son.

So far as penultimate episodes go “Let it Reign” is more function than intrigue, but M’rnn’s arc nearing its close isn’t the only thing the episode has to offer. In his attempt to diversify the DEO’s non-lethal weaponry, Winn creates a high tech new shield. Impressively, that shield can take on the heat vision of a Kryptonian. However, it cannot take on three, and Winn experiences what it’s like to have a soldier die in battle as a direct result of something he had done. In peak Winn Schott form, there are no tears, no strong reactions, just nothing. Those who hurt the most smile the brightest, and as this season went out of its way to illustrate, Winn’s seen some shit. It will be good to see the emotional explosion to come, but for now watching him bury himself in his work is absolutely in character.

With Reign kicking off the terraforming event, Sam has to go back to the dark valley to find a fountain that may or may not save her life. The premise behind both this and the concept of Reign and Sam having the ability to split into two people is flimsy, but Odette Annable’s performance has made it worthwhile. She’s been through hell, and knows that she’s currently dying, but she still looks Ruby in the eye and tells her that her mom is strong and that she’s going to make it through. Each of the women of Supergirl represent a different kind of equally beautiful strength, so I’ll take a flimsy plot-point or two in a comic book show if it results in getting to see these women be absolute badasses.

Episodes will continue until the terraforming concludes, which is next week, for better or for worse. Team Super has another Kryptonian on its side, with Alura following Mon-El and Kara back from Argo. M’yrnn has a plan that might result in his death, Winn’s broken, Lena must not have slept for months, and everyone’s falling apart a little, but that’s the stuff of a great impending finale! Kara will have to wrestle with her no-kill morality, but it just wouldn’t be a story about a Kryptonian without that.

You know what to do if you had thoughts on this week’s episode while you wait!